Betrayal at House on the Hill

Betrayal At House On The Hill is one of my favorite games to pull out and play with friends or to introduce them to this type of exploration board game. I've gifted it several times and taken it to several friend's homes that have all loved the game play. ~~It is very easy to learn and teach~~ What makes this game so fun is that it is different every time. In addition to that, it has an unknown traitor once the haunt begins. With that said, even if you play the same haunt, it can be very different each time because each traitor and hero has a different play style and strategy. ◘ Exploration: The game begins with the adventurers standing in the entryway of the house. Like and good horror movie the group splits up to explore on their own, discovering omens, items, and events along the way. Some players may want to expand the house as large as possible before the haunt begins, and some may want to keep the house smaller. It depends on the group. For every omen discovered, a haunt roll must take place, the player rolls six dice and must roll higher than the number of omen cards on the table. With normal dice, this would be no problem. However, the dice for Betrayal at House on the Hill are not normal. Some sides are blank and it only goes up to 2. Once someone rolls less than the number of omen cards on the table, the haunt begins. ◘ The Haunt: The haunt is the meat of the game, the real objective of the game. Depending on who failed the haunt roll, where they were at in the house, and the last omen cared drawn, the traitor is revealed in the rule book that says "DO NOT READ." The traitor then removes themselves from the room to read about their new powers and objectives, while the heroes remain in the room to discuss their strategy to beat the traitor. •• Why does the game appeal? •• This game is so appealing I think because every time you sit down, it's a little different. Every character differs even from game to game. You might discover the same rooms over and over, but theyre never in the same order and they always have different rooms attached to them sometimes even false doors. It seems like a lot at first, but it doesn't take long to set up and the game can go on as long or as short as you want it to. On top of that, the traitor is different every time and it creates a fun dynamic for the group playing because sometimes its the most innocent person that turns into the traitor and you end up learning about their traitorous side. •• Rules, arguments, and complexity •• The rules are simple, but occasionally, there's room for interpretation, which can make it fun because then it turns into the house rules. The rules really aren't complex and I think the room they leave for interpretation allows each person that buys and plays the game to really make it their own. Some things aren't specifically said, like can this ghost use the elevator, well then the owner or the players can decide the likelihood of a ghost using an elevator or requiring the stairs. •• Who is this game for? •• The game really is for anyone that enjoys that sense of adventure. I've played it with die hard board game fans and they loved it and I've played it with people that are new to board games and usually only played games like Cards Against Humanity. It can be fun for everyone. •• How many players do I need? •• It really depends, I've played with 4, 5, and 6 players. I think the 6 player mark was my favorite. but 4 is a really good sweet spot. When there are 6 players, it begins to feel like there's a lot to keep track of, but it is fun nonetheless because there is so much going on and you uncover the board a lot faster! •• Do I need the expansion? •• Eventually, you could buy it. However, that being said, play the original as much as possibly before you start to get bored of it. In my opinion, that will take ages. •• Conclusion •• At the end of the day, this is usually the game I reach for when friends come over to play games. It has been my favorite for a while and I will always recommend it to people looking for new games.

My rats were almost invincible. Twice the heroes had tangled with them and run away, nearly dead and unable to brave the swarm again. More and more rats were pouring in to stand guard over the door to my pentagram chamber. My ritual was nearly complete; I was seconds from destroying my enemies and raising an unstoppable army of rodents that would swarm the world, all at my control. Then my son drew the Dynamite card. I rolled and rolled, but every rat necessary to my ritual perished in the fiery explosion and the eldritch power I was calling devoured me as their link severed. My almost certain win was destroyed with the drawing of a single card. Betrayal at House on the Hill has: 2-6 explorers, a house that builds slowly with tiles, a set of omen cards that draw the players ever closer to a haunting, and 50 scenarios in which the haunting reveals a traitor, his minions, and the winning and losing conditions for each side. In the first part, you all explore the house, drawing room tiles, encountering event cards that test you, the occasional item, and even more infrequently, an Omen. During this part of the game, no one can die, there are no monsters, and no need to attack other players. Nobody is the enemy yet. However, Omen cards add up; each time you find one, you roll dice to see if the second part of the game happens: the Haunting. The Haunting is when one character either openly or in secret (depending on the scenario) becomes the traitor, controlling the monsters and scenario that challenges the heroes (all the other players) while pursuing goals known only to him. The heroes, to win, have a set of tasks to perform. Sometimes the goal it simply to make it out alive. Sometimes to find a room and complete a ritual. The task is *almost never* as simple as killing the traitor. Sometimes the traitor character is removed and the traitor only controls monster tokens to achieve his goals. Sometimes, the traitor attacks simply to interfere with the heroes as they attempt to flee a ticking countdown. Sometime his goal is to flee the heroes, get to a certain place, perform a ritual of his own, or other nefarious things. In one scenario, sometimes he has only to move a counter and watch the heroes die on their own (my daughter and I actually won that one even with my son's attempted interference, although I died alone on my own without the possibility of escape she was able to complete the goals and so our side won. In any case, we've only played a handful of scenarios, and each one is unique. Sometimes sheer luck makes an easy win. Sometimes winning for one side or the other will be impossible. But all in all, the sheer variety of options, rooms, cards and scenarios makes it enjoyable and balanced, and the ratcheting tension of omen cards leading to a haunting roll succeeding and one of us becoming the bad guy is a fun mechanic. There are rules for playing alternate scenarios if you come up with the same one twice in a row or one everybody has played and want to switch, which is nice. Unlike some of the reviews here, the pieces in my game are sturdy, well made, and in no cases thin and flimsy. And those 1 star reviews pearl clutching at finding ghosts, demonic rituals, the undead, Satanic and/or Chthulic influences, and (gasp) a pentagram room in the game, what were you expecting from a game about hauntings, monsters, and betrayal? Did you not read the back of the box? Go back to playing Clue. Two caveats: lots of pieces so get some baggies to separate them and it requires at least a folding table to play on. A small kitchen or coffee table isn't going to do it.

Super fun game! Mixes Clue and DnD. At first reading of the rules the game might seem complex but give it a quick run through and what you do on a turn quickly makes sense. The game suggests 3 as a minimum but IMO 4 works much better. The tiles, tokens, cards, figurines and rule books are really well made. The only grip I have is the sliders for the player cards; some are looser then others, but its a small issue. There are 6 player cards but they are each double sided so there is really 12 choices. 6 pre painted figurines to go with the player cards. 44 room tiles that you build your mansion with as you go. 80 cards that have items, events or omens. 3 Rule books 1 to get you started and two that come into play when the event starts. One for the Traitor and one for the Survivors. Once you get the hang of the basic game things will go pretty smooth. Once the event starts things may get a bit more confusing. Each team will read from their book and try to figure out what to do and and at the same time guess what the other team is probably going to do. While there are a lot of different events that can happen and this makes the game really great for replay-ability. The Events are not as clearly hatched out as they could be. Sometimes things have to be assumed because the books are not clear. The Events give special abilities and its hard to talk to the other team and explain that something is a given ability and that you are not cheating. But at the same time without giving away what their rule book states. But with so many different events it makes it hard to play test them all I am sure. The game is fun, exciting, suspenseful and surprising. Like I said the replay-ability is awesome.

I absolutely love this game. It is a very luck intensive game, but the variety is pretty fun. Each map you've played and each scenario is different from your previous games. If you go to the traitors tome and look up which scenario you're playing and you've already played it before you can just pick a different one that occurs in another room you've discovered(so you don't repeat). The time varies significantly from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours. It does take a while to get the hang of the game, and for the first two games you'll constantly be looking in and out of the rulebook. Also it is really easy to play with two players as well(just have each person have two characters and when a haunt occurs the person who controls the traitor transfers the non traitor character to the other person). I just love that this game is so different from any other I've played. The only disappointment is the black stat markers as other reviews have noted. They are far to loose and will slip off when you move them on the card. There are several quick fixes to this. We saw this was happening and just used sticky notes with arrows pointing towards the number, moving the sticky pad as the stat changes transpired. You could also try paper clips. Or laminating the cards so they are thicker/write on them with dry erase markers. Just an observation but you will need a very large surface area to play on(think dining room table not coffee table). We've played 5 different scenarios. Here is a review of Each Scenario 1. Haunt #5- I was a teenage Lycanthropy - 5 stars- detailed review below 2. Haunt #9- Dance of Death/fiddler- 3 stars - There was no traitor and everyone lived and won. 3. Haunt #10- Family Gathering - 4 stars- The house was fairly big and managed to make this pretty easy to win with only a single hero dying. 4. Haunt #14- Stars are right- 5 stars- Came down to the last turn with the Traitor barely edging out the heroes who were 1 turn away from winning themselves 5. Haunt #47 - This was the first scenario we played and several of the rules were misplayed. It looks like if it was played correctly it would have been a lot of fun. POSSIBLE SPOILERS! Haunt 5 detailed Review I loved this map. It looked so helpless from the start for the heroes, but it came down to the end. We didn't have the gun or the silver bullets and the Werewolf and dog were right next to the room where we could search for the revolver. We quickly headed to the basement and managed to unlock the room where the silver bullets were made, and passed the knowledge check for the silver bullets. We quickly handed them off to the flash who made a mad dash for the room where he could search for the revolver...unfortunately he failed! The werewolf and the dog quickly ran him down and bit him until he was bloodied and weak. He managed to pass his sanity check and search for the revolver...unfortunately he failed again. He hobbled out of the room and flipped over a new tile. It was the mystic elevator. He rolled the dice(a zero) fell to the basement and took two points of damage(1 die roll) which killed him. So instead of being a werewolf he died a martyr to the cause. We explored another room seeing as we had a little time and managed to draw the crystal ball. The werewolves were on our trail and in the basement. We took the mystic elevator around the house dodging the werewolf and the dog occasionally exploring a new room or two until we found the vault. We managed to acquire the revolver and combined them with the flashes silver bullets(his lifeless body was also on the trip with us ala weekend at bernies) so as the dog and the werewolf approached we lucky feathered our silver bullet out of our gun and into the heart of the werewolf...but wait ... the werewolf rolled an 8 and dodged. Then little zoey sacrificed herself so that Brandon(our hero with the gun) could shoot at them again. Brandon manages to take down the werewolf this time and retreat one more time to the basement. However the dog takes the slide down and manages to land in the basement with brandon. The dog attacks brandon, but he manages to defend himself and remain unharmed. Brandon then shoots the dog with the silver bullet to win the scenario.

I was originally going to just give Betrayal a five star review and move on, but then Amazon asked me some followup questions. Is it easy to learn? Is it giftable? And thickness? And while anyone else reviewing the game might think "Thickness, WTF?," I'm right there with you Amazon. I want you, Dear Reader, to know that this game is indeed perfectly thick. Not too thick. Not too thin. Just the right amount of thick. This is indeed a question that I ask myself anytime I consider buying a game. "Sure, it sounds like it's totally fun to play, but how thick is it?" A game that is overly thick just isn't welcome in my house. How do you possibly handle a game that has too much girth? And sure, a game might be easy to learn, but if it's not thick enough, can it really even be called a game? A diversion, maybe. A distraction, sure. But for a game to be game, it has to be substantially thick. Thick enough. But not too thick. So, while I would give Betrayal at House on the Hill five stars just on entertainment value and replayability, I find myself longing for more stars to give, in honor of the game's perfect, sturdy, robust, proportional and dependable thickness. Truly the thickest game that ever thicked thicks. But not too thick.

This game is a lot of fun, but it is hard to learn. The directions can be somewhat confusing-especially if you are new to the game. It is so much easier to have someone who knows how to play to explain it to you as you go! I'll do a quick synopsis to demonstrate: One of the difficult parts to learn was what "The Haunt" and "Monster Roll" was. The haunt is basically where the game changes. The monster roll is the turn of the monster (whatever monster is activated) during the haunt. Basically, you & your group enter a haunted house. Roll the dice to see how many rooms/steps you take. You start off with just the entryway-you "discover" rooms as you go. This means you grab a board piece that corresponds to whatever floor you are on and add it to the board where you are. Once you enter a room, some will have a symbol on the room & it will direct you to pick up a card & read/follow the directions on it. It's best to discover as many rooms as possible before the haunt is activated. *The haunt is activated by a dice roll. During the haunt: One person will take on an extra role of being the monster. The other players will try to defeat the monster. See? Not too hard, but unless you read the whole booklet very carefully, you might not understand fully. It took 3 of us fumbling thru one game, then kinda knowing what we were doing during the second. Then we some-what mastered it on the 3rd round. It is ok with just 3 players, but way more fun with 4 or more! It has a great re-play ability to it. Each time things will change-rooms, monsters, items you have, etc. Overall, this is a great game. It has a learning curve in the beginning, but you can catch on quickly after that. Like I said, having at least one person to help the others walk thru it, makes it way more fun & easy to learn! It's not a quick game-if you take your time & especially if you are new, it will take at least an hour to play! We paid $31 + tax for it and it was worth it. Hopefully, they will make a new addition with easier to understand directions. I'd also like to see it take longer to activate the haunt. It is fun exploring the rooms & lots of times we only have a few before the haunt!

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a fantastic game made by Wizards of the Coast. Gameplay starts with each player choosing a survivor - six survivor tiles with a different version of the character on each side makes for twelve to choose from - and placing them in the central hallway. From there, players explore the house by going through doorways into unexplored rooms, revealing rooms from a stack of tiles and spooky events that do everything from slowing them down to gaining powers or items. In fact, everything in this game is straight out of a horror show - whether you're hearing shrieking voices, choking on grave dust, or being buried alive, Betrayal at House on the Hill is easily one of the creepiest board games you'll ever play! The real fun begins when the Haunt starts; some rooms contain Omen cards, and every time an omen is revealed, six dice are rolled. If the total showing is lower than the number of omens that are showing, the Haunt has begun! The Traitor's Tome is referenced to see which haunt is being played out (there are 50 in all), and the identity of the traitor is revealed. Since no one knows who the traitor is until this point, you might have been helping them all along! The traitor leaves the room and flips to the appropriate page in the Traitor's Tome to see what they're supposed to be doing, and the rest of the players look through the Survivor's Guide to see what their new objective is. It would be unfair to reveal any of the haunts here, but I will say that you'll wind up doing all sorts of insane things to fulfill your win condition, whether you're the traitor or one of the survivors. With fifty different scenarios and a house that's different every time you explore it, Betrayal at House on the Hill has a lot of replay value. Sure, you'll eventually start to recognize the Haunts...but that takes a lot of playing time, and even if you know what's going on, that doesn't mean you can do anything about it! Two things to keep in mind: 1) This game is not for younger children. Most of the themes are spooky and might frighten the little ones, so treat this games as PG-13. It's especially important to keep this game away from toddlers and infants, as many (most) of the game pieces could be choking hazards. 2) The components are a little questionable. Almost everything is cardboard, which means the game is subject to warping if stacked a certain way. Furthermore, there are endless tiny pieces; get several small sandwich bags and separate the tokens by type, or prepare to spend several minutes hunting every time you need one. Those two caveats are hardly anything that should keep you away from this game. With a high level of replayability, creative and engaging scenarios, and a social dynamic that can't be ignore, Betrayal at House on the Hill earned its second run by being a fantastic game that's difficult to ignore.

We purchased this product a few weeks ago, but finally got around to playing it with family members this weekend. We really enjoyed this game! We played with 6 members and the total playing time took about 1 - 1 1/2 hours to finish. PROS: I would describe this game as a mashup of DnD and Clue. You have elements of character building and encounters, while set within the scene of a constantly evolving mansion. Each play through, you will explore a different variation of house, have different items, omens, and events, and your story/haunt will most likely play out differently as well. Having one of your companions turn against the group adds a unique and unanticipated challenge for everyone involved. The game arrived in excellent condition. All of the game pieces were in order and of good quality. We received a 2nd edition game, and many of the issues with the first edition game seem to have been resolved. I found that the stories/haunts are well developed, and I am impressed that the game is designed for extreme diversity so that no two games are the same. CONS: I recommend doing a walk-through scenario ahead of time before you play the game live with a group. There are so many variables and nuances to the game that trying to play through without someone having a solid understanding of what to do can lead to frustration. Also, this game can be intense, so I would not recommend for younger kids below 10 years of age (the box recommends 12 and up). There are occasionally situations where the cards or the rules/game-play conflict with each other, but the second edition explains to go based off the cards/gameplay when that happens. Also, in situations like this, the players can simply agree how to handle a situation so that everyone still has fun. An example of this: we had a player "stuck" in the Junk Room because it was impossible to roll high enough to pass the sanity check required to exit. We agreed that after 3 attempts, they could leave the room. OVERALL: I highly recommend this game if this is the style of gameplay you enjoy.